Colorado Trail Series

Colorado Trail Series

 Day 4
Blackhawk Pass to a Dry Camp
(below Cape of Good Hope)

Hiked: 16 miles
Camp: 11,060 elevation

Day 4 was a loooong haul.  We had "a long way to go and a short time to get there..."  Ok, bad lyrical movie reference and kudos to those who get it.  Actually, we had from sun up until sun down to make the hike but it was a longer mileage day and we had to stop to filter water in the mid-morning.  Enough water to last us that day and the next, for tonight would be a dry camp with no water source until camp the following day.  Let's see....... water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon, hiking is a sweaty physically demanding activity, altitude is a dehydrating factor, hydration is the key to good muscle recovery..... yeah, let's just say there was a lot of water to be filtered and carried for the next two days.  Buck up and carry on!

As always click to enlarge photos!
 

Thank goodness the highest point of the day was first thing in the morning.  As I might have mentioned before, I don't do steeps very well.  Looking back down towards the cozy little stream side camp we left, you can see the switchbacks of the trail that tried to break me before I was even fully awake.

Jim was waiting at the top to document my arrival.

 We paused to catch our breath and I took the camera for a while.
Here's Jim in all his glory with the rising sun behind Blackhawk Mountain (12,681ft).

 

 Lots of traversing today.

 

 Sweeping views.

  

Finally a bit of shade to rest in.

Downhill is not Jim's favorite. (his knees don't like it)

The remaining hardy wildflowers were so beautiful in contrast to the tender frostbitten leaves around them.

 

Salt Creek Trail Intersect

Yay!  An actual sign to judge our progress by.

By my best interpretations of the guidebook, we were 3.25 miles from where we were planning on making camp.

A little dance of joy to celebrate!

But not much time to linger, calculating the amount of daylight we had left buy the lengthening shadows we had better keep moving.

Whoa! 

Looks like we had some company lurking about the woods with us.

A fresh mountain lion print in the mud.  There were quite a few tracks but this was the best one we could get a picture of.

 

Camp!

Best use the flash on the camera 'cuz it's officially dusk!

 

We found the well used campsite as described in the guidebook just as twilight was wrapping it's way around the trees.  Settling into our campsite routines, Jim got the tent and beds ready while I bundled up and made dinner.  Exhausted, we eat by light of our headlamps and crawled into our bags for the night.
 

We no sooner fell into the deepest of deep slumbers when we both sat straight up to the sound of a bunch of sorority girls screaming as in a horror film.  I looked at Jim and matter of factly stated, "Coyotes."  He replied,"Yep, killing a rabbit."  With that, we flopped back down and instantly back to sleep.

 

End of Day 4

3 Days Ahead - 43+ Miles Behind

(Our trip was officially more than halfway over)